Somos Guerreras is a project of three of the leading female rappers of Central America:Rebeca Lane (Guatemala), Audry Funk (Mexico) and Nakury (Costa Rica).
Their “Somos Guerreras” tours in 2015 and 2016 throughout all countries of Central America has been quite a sensation. “How Latin American women are changing hip-hop” has been the title of a big feature in “Guardian”. The feminist hip-hop activists took a swipe at Latino MCs who use misogynist and homophobic language to insult one another, or who make puerile boasts about their huevos (eggs, meaning balls): “I’ve got a million eggs in each ovary. That doesn’t make me any more of a woman, or you less of a man,” raps Rebeca Lane. “The level of gender violence in freestyle rhyming battles, and in mainstream rap, can be horrific,” she adds.

“Rebeca Lane and the other female rappers are part of a new generation of Latin American female MCs whose lyrics touch on some of the issues facing the region’s women – and celebrate the resilience and sheer huevos it takes to exist as a woman at all. The issues in question include a deep-rooted lack of equality; inadequate access to healthcare, sex education, contraception and abortion; human trafficking; domestic and public violence, rape and femicide.” (The Guardian)

“We all come from a very machista culture,” says the Mexican MC Audry Funk, who is also part of the all-female, trans-Latin-American collective Somos Mujeres Somos Hip-Hop (We Are Women, We Are Hip-Hop).

Following in the footsteps of pioneers like Argentina’s Actitud María Marta, a socially conscious hip-hop group formed in the 90s, this emerging generation of female MCs is less interested in fame and fortune than it is in empowerment, collaboration and education.They are sociologists (Lane), philosophers (Funk) or culture managers (Nakuri), and all of them work with kids or teenagers, are social workers in ghettos, sort of, and understand hip-hop as a way of self-empowerment, and a way of educational work.

Although there’s no shortage of highly commercialised versions of the genre in Latin America, there’s also an underground hip-hop scene and it’s thriving.
Take Guatemala, Lane says, still one of the most violent countries in the world, despite the 1996 peace agreements that ended the country’s 36-year, genocidal civil war. Lane’s aunt disappeared in 1981, one of 200,000 Guatemalans killed during almost four decades of bloodshed. “We’ve had peace accords in Guatemala,” says Lane, “but we’ve never had any peace, or justice.” The hip-hop scene, she says, has played a healing role for some of the postwar generation: “It gives young people ways of organizing beyond armed conflict, beyond military or gang violence.”

Now Europe will see three of the leading Central American female rappers on tour for the first time ever in soring and summer of 2019: “Somos Guerreras” (we are warriors) is the title of their tour, as it is in Central America (where they will tour again in the fall of 2018).

Rebeca Lane (Guatemala) is „one of the leading female rappers of Central America“ (German daily „tageszeitung“) and has toured Europe with huge success throughout 2017 and 2018, with sold out shows and festivals in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Denmark and, of course, loads of shows and festivals in Spain. She has been featured in leading TV shows such as “Kulturzeit” (3sat D-A-CH) and has given countless lectures around her shows on the role of women and hip-hop in Central America.

Audry Funk (Mexico) is a rapper for more than 15 years now. She is from Puebla and now lives in the Bronx (NYC). She is famous for her original style and powerful message, and as Rebeca Lane, “she has a voice which is good for more than just rap. As Rebeca Lane, she also has soulful R’n’B-songs in her repertoire”, as leading Swiss daily “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” has reviewed.

Nakury (Costa Rica) also is not only just a female rapper – she is calling herself “an MC, activist, cultural manager and documentarist”. She started her career in the hip-hop scene by doing graffiti and breakdance, till she got immersed by the world of rhymes. In the meantime, she is one of the leading female rappers in Central America, her first album “Rima Que Ilumina” (2014) was nominated “Best Urban Album” for ACAM Awards, and her latest work, “VIA”, counts as one of the best-selling Central American hip-hop albums. With her production company Union Break, Nakuri is organizing one of the biggest hip-hop festivals in Central America, and she also has directed the documentary „Somos Guerreras“ (2014).

These three female rappers and musicians, at their European tour in 2019 supported by opening act Zaki (El Salvador) and DJ Barzo (Costa Rica), are great performers with a very powerful stage presence, and with their conscious lyricism and their striong music from hip-hop to soul, they will blow minds and will make quite an impression.

And, last but by far not least: they have a strong message!

Hip-hop isn’t dead – it’s just been learning Spanish!

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Rebeca Lane, Audry Funk and Nakury will also do workshops and lectures upon request: